Supreme Court Goes Rogue

Justice Roberts: "Take it all off!"

Just as the the Conclave of Roman Catholic Cardinals is apt to make mistakes in choosing a Pope, the United States Supreme Court has been known to make some seriously flawed decisions. One of the more egregious was the Dred Scott case which denied freed slaves their citizenship and was overturned in 1868 by the 14th Amendment. Then there was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case which maintained that segregated passenger cars did not violate the 14th Amendment, and "separate but equal" lasted until the 1950's (Brown vs. Board of Education). A few dreadful decisions in over 200 years.


And then in recent history, in just a few short years,  we have had three atrocious rulings by a conservative, Republican biased Supreme Court. In 2000, by a five-to-four decision, the Republican majority invalidated a Florida law mandating a recount, and in effect giving George W. Bush the Presidency of the United States, and we all know how that turned out. This case removed any doubt that these five judges were making decisions based on politics because earlier in their careers or when being questioned by the Senate, they claimed to be "States Rights" judges. Apparently, states rights were only a factor in racial situations.


And then in 2010, the "frightful five" in the Citizens United case decided that corporations and labor unions had the same rights as an individual person; and, in the name of freedom of speech, they could contribute unlimited and undisclosed amounts of money to influence political elections. This decision places our electoral process on the auction block.


After those two obvious politically- motivated decisions, one would think this court had done enough damage for a century. But no, the "Frightful Five" were not finished. Their next target was one of our most cherished rights, the right preventing "unreasonable searches and seizures" which we, the citizens,  were confident was protected by the Fourth Amendment. Guess again. The five conservative Republican appointed judges had other ideas, even though they had previously railed against "activist" judges. On April 3, 2012, to the dismay of most, the five Republican appointed judges decided to give police the authority to use strip-searches, even for minor offenses such as jay-walking or violating a leash law.


The result: my granddaughter or grandson is stopped by the police because she/he does not have a bell ringer on her/his bicycle (one of the cases considered) and is now subject to a strip-search, including probing her/his body cavities. A Catholic nun at an ant-war demonstration could be arrested and subjected to a strip-search. ( An actual case and one which makes one wonder whether this technique is going to be used to prevent peaceful protest.)


 But of course, we all know we can trust the police to do the right and reasonable thing.


The " Frightful Five" disregarded Justice Stephen Breyer's warning that such searches  were "a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy." So much for our liberties and the Fourth Amendment!


Thus, within a matter of ten years, five justices have managed to make a mockery of the the Supreme Court as envisioned by our Founding Fathers.


And now, these same political justices are considering the Affordable Health Care Act passed by Congress in 2011. What are the chances that Justice Roberts and his buddies in the black robes will reach a judicial decision not based on politics?